Onion 
The 30th Street bike lane was added to support the expansion of San Diego’s bike transportation network. The bike lane was intended to create a protected space for bikers to commute. However, nearly all of the protective bollards are damaged or missing due to vehicles running them over. Additionally, drivers often misunderstand the breaks in the bike lane, leading to cars and trucks entering the lane and endangering bikers.
The bike lane has also created issues for trash pickup. Many homes along 30th Street are missed due to driver confusion over new routes or because trash bins placed for pickup are moved by passing cars or annoyed bikers.
For homes along the bike route now without parking, issues arise for parents with small children needing to load and unload cars. Houses requiring repairs or landscape maintenance cannot provide parking accommodations for work to occur.
The project seems poorly planned, compromising residential parking and trash services, and creating safety issues for bikers. A more effective solution could have been a single, well-protected lane on one side of the street rather than lanes on both sides.
Thank you for nominating this project as an Onion! As a resident of North Park, the entire 30th Street Bike Lane project was rammed through by city government on residents and property owners without any consideration for the impact on their daily lives. Zero thought was given to electric vehicles as a way to eliminate emissions. This project deserves to win the Onion award, especially because it was “planned” by the city government. Somehow ride share companies and bike lane advocates have more power over property owners and residents in North/South Park currently; after this debacle, I am hopeful that this dynamic is about to change soon.
This bike lane is a safety abomination. It encourages naive cyclists into a conflict area with poor visibility.
As a long time, experienced cyclist I get more hate from motorists than before the lane was installed when I ride (safely) in the middle of the traffic lane.
The lane actually decreases safety, and the only benefit I can see is for the politicos who forced this project on the neighborhood and can now claim to have added X miles of bike infrastructure while pandering to those who don’t understand the basics of non-motorized traffic safety.
One further comment: “protected” bike lanes may seem like a good idea, but they create ambiguity and conflict at intersections (which includes driveways). They may “feel” safe at the expense of real safety.
Far too many of these “protected” cycling facilities unnecessarily endanger cyclists, setting them up for right hook, left cross, and side entry (e.g. cars leaving driveways) collisions. Counterintuitively to non-cyclists and “sidewalk cyclists,” plain old painted bike lanes, augmented with green paint in conflict zones, are far safer. The City of Carlsbad does a mostly exemplary job of providing safe cycling facilities, with designs that should be emulated elsewhere.
These death bollards ruin cycling. They are ugly, expensive, collect dirt and are dangerous for cyclist. Cyclist will now avoid this road or be forced into the road when debris makes the lane unsafe; also no one in there right mind would descend down a hill in these restricted lanes. This creates even more animosity with cars. It’s ruining cycling in San Diego.
This project has been a game-changer, in a good way, for people biking in and around North Park. Safety and cyclist comfort is massively improved with the lanes versus the sharrows that existed prior. It’s a crucial North-South spine that connects with Meade, Landis, and soon the Howard bikeways, up to Adams which is a popular bike route which should have protected lanes, and down to the older 30th Street bike lanes in South Park.
The city could have put parking on both sides with narrower bike lanes North of Upas, and narrower bike lanes and a single lane of parking South of Upas. Maybe that’d have been a better compromise, even though it’d have made the bike lanes less pleasant to use. Hard to say. The city *should* put stronger bollards and/or curb protection in to improve the lanes, but as a first step it’s an Orchid to me.